5 “new” types of diabetes and what they mean

This widespread disorder was found to occur because of inappropriate production or perception of hormone insulin. This chemical is generated by pancreatic cells in order to convert glucose from foods to energy and then move it from the bloodstream inside the cells.

To date, doctors classify diabetes into two main types. Type 1 of disease is recognized as autoimmune problem, in which person’s immune system begins to destroy body’s own insulin-producing cells by mistake.

But in vast majority of cases, disease happens because body cells become resistant to insulin. This is commonly called type 2 diabetes.

However recent research found that it could be more than two traditional types of diabetes.

Scientists from Sweden and Finland looked at nearly 15000 patients, in whom diabetes was diagnosed for the first time.

During the study, experts gathered data about participants’ weight, age, hemoglobin A1C (a lab sign of long-term control under the blood glucose levels), functioning of the insulin-creating pancreatic cells, insulin sensitivity and presence of autoimmune antibodies.

In addition to this, progression of disorder, effectiveness of treatment and complications were thoroughly observed too.

According to results, published in the Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, investigators supposed that diabetes should be classified into five types, or clusters:

Cluster 1 – severe autoimmune diabetes, which is similar to type 1 of disease. In this cluster, found in 6-15% of participants, autoantibodies were circulating that led to impaired creation of insulin.

Cluster 2 – severe insulin-deficient diabetes that affected younger people with normal BMI. Even though production of insulin was insufficient, no autoantibodies were found in the blood flow.